Ash and Spark
by Mythologyfangirl
Summary: (War Storm twist) Mare Barrow thinks her or Maven Calore will die when she steps into darkness but Maven has other plans for the little lightning girl. A deadly Queenstrial, Mare's secret from the Stilts, the familiar whispers in her head, the crown of flames on offer. Two princes of fire, waiting to kiss and kill her. An alternative storm is here.
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1:_

 _Mare POV_

Ash and spark- One of us will be reduced to cinders. The Silent Stone gnaws at my chest, making each breath an effort that I might not have to draw for much longer. His knife glints silver, no red... Yet. His eyes are sapphire pools and he makes me drown in them, he makes shivers shoot down my spine and goosebumps blossom over my flesh. His weapon or his eyes. I can't decide which is worse. He never ceases to drink me in, running over my head to toes and back again. Perhaps he is trying to capture me in the moment before this ends. _Before he kills me._

"I run and you follow. You can't help yourself, can you? Admit it, Mare." His voice is oddly soft, slow and yet unmistakably sharp, a tiny flame. It glows with enticement and yet possesses the power to burn. He sets my every nerve on edge and leaves my heart pounding against my ribcage. The very chords of his voice are tactical, playing them like an instrument. My mouth wants words in it and yet my mind can't summon any in the mental storm. _Admit it. Admit what?_ Those are the words that I want to say but I can't give him what he wants... My attention. Instead, I act as if the quality of my nails are of more significance than this moment of finality between us. I can see his fists clench at the silence that is my retort. _I'll admit nothing._ At least, that's what I tell myself. My hands fall.

Being so close to him makes my eyes water with the salt of tears threatening to sting. I feel one fall and I focus on the sensation of wetness against my left cheek with the weakness eating at my bones leaving my hands at my sides. It's the only distraction I have right now, a small speck of cold to drown out the invisible flames that circle around us. He doesn't even need his powers to summon the heat he leaves me in. My eyes flicker downwards to the floor of onyx. All I see is blackness. No, I swallow hard against the knot that tightens in the very pit of my stomach. And boots.

 _Don't look at him_ , my mind screams furiously.

"Look at me, Mare." The behest dribbles past his lips as a whisper. So light that it almost tickles. I want to vomit, I want so desperately for my empty stomach to choke something up. But nothing happens. Nothing comes. My insides turn to a cage of butterflies, violent butterflies that flutter and make me want to fall to my knees from the disgusting sensation. This is what he does to me. But maybe what I do to him in return. He's too close. My instincts know that as they squirm beneath his heat and gaze.

His knife falls.

His touch is fire. His index finger trails down the path of my single tear as if he can burn it away the trail that he follows until he reaches my chin. My chin that he shoves upwards- Unexpectedly hard. A panicked gasp escapes past my lips and I'm forced to see the way his lips turn upwards. Handsomely.

"No electric torturing bastard here anymore to stop me. Hmm, you like him too?" His fingers dig into my chin as he holds it in place. The stench of envy. Misplaced envy, of course. "No matter, I'll have him killed by sunset. We can't have the little lightening girl upstaged. Stronger than you, you said. No, that won't do."

I can see him calculating. What I cannot be sure. He speaks about me as if he'll let me live. I know that is a lie. He longs to see me dead.

"J-Just kill me, Maven. T-tell Cal that I love him, p-please. Just end this! Tell my mum and Gisa and Tramy and-" My tears burst open and my breath stutters. If the Silent Stone melted away, my lightening would explode and electrify this whole God damn place. My veins flood with a hunger for one last spark that will never come. It consumes.

His tongue clicks and his head tilts with those dark doe eyes. A grin creeps across his face. As if he's made a decision.

"You think it'll all end like this? Oh no. Perhaps you're more stupid than I thought, darling."

 _Darling_ , my skin crawls, just like his fingers as they move back and forth over the bone of my jaw gently. "You think so little of me." He breathes against my neck so softly that it could be a kiss. "I was thinking of killing you, Mare. You have no idea how many times I considered it at night. But the thing is. I went to your scum of a house, I burned your curtains, I burned your books, I burned your tatty furniture. Then I led on your bed and saw it on the ceiling. I suppose you never thought I would." My heart is hammering as an ice consumes my body.

 _Shit._

My eyes fall back downwards, anywhere but his eyes, anywhere but his smile.

"My face stared back, Mare."

Ever so slightly, his feet tiptoe forwards and only oxygen separates us. My instincts tell me to run but I can't move from the weight of the words and the stone and the distance and the feel of his chest against mine and his breath on my skin. I can feel the abs beneath his thin grey clothes and it kills me. I want to die more. His lips are so close to mine and our noses touch. I could close my eyes and pretend it's Cal.

"Why did you have a poster of me, Mare? Hmm? Go on, pretend you don't like me. Pretend we were never meant to meet?" I breathe deeply and quick. I struggle to suck in as much air as I can with my heart beating the fastest it's ever been in my entire life. His handsome grin widens as he watches me panic about my past and our horribly too close proximity.

"G-Gisa." That's all that I can manage to get out. I expect silence to reign over us but instead, I'm hit with laughter, a light laugh that is a knife in my chest. It digs and digs.

"You're a good liar, Mare." He pauses a moment before the next words tumble out of his mouth, caught for a flicker of a second on the way I swallow hard and then bite my lower lip. An irritating betrayal of myself. "Isn't she, Ruth Barrow? Gisa?"

 _No! No! No! How!? No!_ Oh _Gods no!_ My eyes dart wildly trying to find them until shadows sneak out from doors that had been drenched in darkness. Sentinals flank my mother, sister and two brothers, gagged and crying. They're screaming words that I can't and don't have time to attempt to decipher. I don't need their words, I need to see their faces.

"NO! MAVEN! MAVEN!" My fingers crawl to the collar of his shirt with his head over his shoulder. I drag his attention back to me forcefully with a desperate shake and trembling fingers. "Maven please- please! D-Don't. Whatever you want to punish me for- For taking you prisoner, I-I get it but not them. They were safe in-"

"They were never safe, Mare. But they are now, if you obey. I have spies on you every second of every day. I told you I don't use them to track your emotions, remember?" He lets my hands rest on his collar, knowing they'll never dare to reach for his throat with all these guards. "Well I lied. You see, your little Kilorn has switched sides. He told me where your family were- Whilst you were with me on our little prison game, my nobles got them out and brought them here as I planned when you spoke on tunnels. They were on that train half an hour ago Mare. You didn't even notice. Kilorn told me about how your little Scarlet Guard were going to kill you after you'd won the war for them. You're too powerful Mare and they hate it. You're so predictable, sweetheart and you just followed my plan. I've saved you."

My lungs want to scream and my knees buckle beneath me. Pain shoots through bone as they smash onto the hard earth but I can't summon the will to care. I can't summon the will to care about the way Maven looks down at me, leering and then lowers himself to a crouch. His eyes lock onto mine and he cocks an eyebrow, waiting for something, licking his lips hungrily.

"Say thank you, Mare. Come on, I know you haven't forgotten all of the etiquettes. When this damn war is over, when Cal is dead and we're the last ones left standing, I'll book you some more lessons so that we can negotiate with Iris' sister after her and her mother are dead. You'll make me good again and I'll make you Queen Mare Calore. We will be a fire storm."

His breath dances, seductive and warm. "Iris was a mistake, Mare. I only married her to make you jealous. But no need to be jealous anymore, hmm? I only have a fondness for lightening. For you. Mare Barrow, I offer you my hand in marriage when this war is over and the storm has passed. This nation is behind me and I'll burn the rats out, darling."

His hand cups my cheek, waiting for my nod of approval with a flick of his fingers leaving my family with knives at their throats and guards ready to march.

"F-Fuck you." I breathe. His eyes smolder and Gisa screams are muffled beneath cloth as her once broken arm is grabbed by a damned sentinal. Maven's eyes burn brighter, threatening to consume me, waiting. "Make your choice, lightning girl."

"I agree to be Mare Calore. To give my hand to you."

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Please review. Thank you for reading! x


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2:_

 _Mare POV_

Lightning bleeds across the grey to purple skies and streams thunder. The flashes are unmerciful in their repetition with bolt after bolt rushing through my body and shocking the earth as the Silent Stone's weight falls away as fresh air hits my lungs. My internal scream of realization is a simultaneous onslaught of my heart being drawn in the clouds with white streaks cracking in all directions. Shattered and torn. My tears are even showing through the sudden battering of rain that plummets down upon the battle before me. Thunder and flames. My stomach lurches at the very sight. Destruction. Slaughter. Death.

My emotions are on full display for all to witness as I dance on a live wire, the zig zags running through my heart demanding to be released into the atmosphere. They cannot be controlled or subdued as Bree's panicked screams somewhere off god knows wherever Maven commanded my family off to keep my priorities in check as a new Merandus probably keeps his palms at my brother's head, poised and Maven breathes down my neck. My nostrils catch the cinder in the air, the scent of smoke, getting stronger and stronger by the second.

 _No Cal! No! Don't fall for it!_

 _"_ MARE! MARE!" Cal's hollers burn like flames consuming my entire body but they keep spreading in their volume and intensity with the shadow behind the grey puffs of thick smoke breaking from the darkness to hold light in his palms. My feet ache to spring into motion towards him and my finger itch to wipe the fear from his mud covered face and have my fingers cling to his crimson military jacket and whisper that we'll make this out alive, but the hand that suddenly seizes my shoulder and turns me to his eyes over Cal's leaves the thought in ashes and cinders. Cal's final cry of my name is melted against the roar of thunder, the downpour of raindrops and flashes of lightning as my lips are crushed by unexpected lips. They're horribly soft and wet and warm and forceful. His tongue steals my breath and halts Cal's screams clearly. I only hear the heartbeat roaring in my ears, reflected in the rhythm of erupting hissing of electric. They're rapid against the feel of this tactic that leaves my body disgustingly on edge and uncontrollably and randomly hungry in this chaos. A weak moan escapes in my throat with a wave of repulsion and a tiny tiny tiny amount of pleasure. A new feeling. My tongue is hit with Maven's as he explores the depths of my mouth slowly and the image of mum, Gisa, Bree and Tramy burning at his command leaves my urge to shove Maven away at bay. A mere word to one of the twenty guards standing behind us and they might not survive. I let him make his statement.

The flame of the far too long kiss flickers as he draws away hesitantly with his eyelashes fluttering to face the narrowness of my eyes and the storm within them. Maven swallows hard before leaving my glare to find Cal's. I don't need to turn to imagine the way Cal is probably glowering and glowing, waiting. My damp loose locks fly across Maven's shoulder as I whirl towards him. Cal's eyes burn as much as his hands, the hands that leads my own to suck the lightning back from the skies to my palms. He lets his flames fly as he allows a strained cry of rage to hit me as a target. The balls of fire die before they touch me and Maven though but the heat is too close for comfort.

"GET AWAY FROM HER! GO ON! STEP AWAY! I'LL KILL YOU I SWEAR IT!"

I want to close my eyes, if only to avoid the way tears slip down his cheeks and reflect orange flickers. His whole body is shaking, like a flame in the wind but my lightning, rain and thunder doesn't drown him out but only makes him grow stronger as he steps towards us to reach for my hand, holding it out waiting. My fingers twitch and lighting hums with tension drumming in the air.

"You hear that Mare? As if he owns you... I'm presuming you didn't tell him? After all this time hmm." Maven's footsteps are strangely deafening, even against the lightning as he weaves his way around me, wrapping me around his lies, stopping between me and Cal. A barrier. My lightning falls silent suddenly waiting for the words that will exit his mouth with his eyes locking onto mine, thinking. A smile before his fingers find my numb ones.

"Mare isn't one of you, Cal. She's a Red Spy. I let you take her back after my Court. She was playing you. For me. For us. And now she's returned to me again. Hm funny, you never realized Cal- Wearing the blue of _my_ mother at our little meeting? Mare Barrow and I have a connection that runs as deep as our powers, don't we Mare?"

Both of their eyes fall on me and I'm lost in flames. They make my lightning crack above as I struggle for breath, and Maven raises an eyebrow casting his gaze upwards to the darkening skies as if he can read my mind like his mother. His eyes rip back towards me and his eyes narrow as silence cuts like a blade. "It wasn't your face she stared at in the Stilts, Cal- But mine."

My knuckles roll into fists at my sides at the way the chords of his voice are so gentle, the tenor unaffected by the sudden crash of lightning overhead. "You're making her nervous. I think we'd both appreciate it if you stepped back Tiberias." Another flash escapes as my heart pounds as my eyes dare to find Cal's pleadingly as tears slip down his cheeks and the fires in his hands fail into nothing.

"Please tell me he's lying Mare." Cal's voice is barely audible as he whispers. His tears are dissolved against the wave of images of my family, gagged, crying and being dragged away to leave Maven, I and guards alone with that looming threat, leaving the words that tumble into my mouth, a simple retort.

"You always were slow, Cal." My voice hits him like a strike of lightning, a strike of lightning that I smash into his leg, just enough pain to leave him falling to his knees. Not to kill him, never to kill him. "I'm sorry." I whisper back as the guards descend swiftly. Predictable. But believable.

"MARE! Mare! Think about this! Y-you're lying- Y-you wouldn't! The running together was nothing? The training? Our kisses?" The tears attack his tenor as he stumbles over words and I fight to hold back my own with my nails digging into the palm of my flesh. _Stop Cal! Please stop!_ I want to scream as I leave his heart shattered. I hear Maven's footsteps behind until his fingers brush mine lightly and my skin feels alight, with anger, despair- I have no idea.

"YOUR VIRGINITY?! That meant nothing to you, Mare?!"

The lightning stops at Cal's scream that tears through my self-control. My breath catches in my throat as a chill of ice sweeps through the veins in my body and leaves my feet frozen. Perhaps Maven can feel the cold too as his feet stop in motion, towards a transport destined to take us to he only knows where, open and waiting. _No! Shit! Cal no! He's just signed my family's death warrant!_ And the damned idiot has no idea. Tears are rising and there's no point in chewing them down. They already fall- For mum, dad, Gisa, Tramy and Bree. For myself.

Maybe Maven's spies didn't know everything. I hold back a momentary grin of pathetic victory that begs to appear.

His dark eyes only find mine and then his lips travel to my ear. "You think I didn't know? I don't care, Mare. I'll have you all to myself anyway and many more times." A threat? Or a promise? A shiver shoots down my spine either way. Maven's index finger trails across my lips tentatively to stop the speech as I open my mouth to aim some bullet of language. "You seem to forget I've seen your deepest desires, your thoughts. Samson told me months ago." Heat rises in my cheeks and they flush violently at the seductive nature of his light purr. It was once. A moment of weakness. A disgusting thought. When Maven was different. I suppose Samson never mentioned the thoughts of Cal in that department. "Glad to see we're on the same page." He's handing me an olive branch and I take it through forcing a smile to match his. His eyes widen slightly at the way I lean in for my lips to press against his own ear in return. I snap the branch in two through the razor-sharp words.

"Never. You're sickening." My voice is like venom as my own fingers shove his away harshly with the next words dissolving into a whisper that only he can catch. "I wish I'd killed you over Elara. i-I wish I'd have died in that arena with Cal. The one you put me in."

His tongue clicks and he makes thick smoke rise in the air around us from his internal flames, the grey substance hitting my lungs. He watches intently as I try to blink away the sourness of my eyes and struggle for breath. His eyes go past me to find Cal struggling with the guards that wrestle him to his knees. I follow his line of vision. That is until Maven pulls my head back somewhere between hard and soft as his hand goes to hold my chin so that he is my focus and not Cal. "I was never going to kill you in that arena, Mare. Mother wanted me too. They had instructions to fight to the death with Cal, but only minor injuries with you. I wanted you to change your mind about taking up my offer of marriage in there, in front of the Court, on national screens- But then you- you went with your little Red friends and ruined it all."

He shakes his head lightly, feigning disappointment to mask devastation as my words still sizzle in the air. He's almost crying and my gut twitches. "I give you chance after chance Mare. I never wanted to hurt you, but you push and you push and you took my mother away. And I still want you. Why do I still want you? But fine you want to play it the hard way. Then I will do the same. No mercy for my brother. I was going to spare you watching him die. But now, you can be the one to kill him. Either you will kill Cal when the time comes or I'll make sure that sister of yours never sews again- Not even your wedding dress. Your choice."

His fingers skim over the colored earrings from my family slowly as he allows his own words to sink into my brain with the smoke settling as if the truth off his chest calms him, leaving his other hand in a flame that he curls nonchalantly, almost playful now. He offers me a weak smile which makes butterflies burst open in the pit of my belly.

"I've dreamed about this moment for months. Kissing you. Imprisoning him. Killing him. Having you. Let me make something clear, Mare. You'll help me win this war. And you will be mine, whether you want to or not. I'm the King and I've let you, Little Lightning Girl rule me for too long. The tables have turned once again between us. And this time will be third time lucky. You won't leave me again. I have new plans for you."

A flash of lightning only just misses him and a laugh slips past his lips lightly, tucking a lock of loose hair behind my ear so that he can breathe in it once more. Maybe he likes making my hairs stand on end. "Do that again and that collar will sit on your neck. You don't want that do you, Mare?"

 _No!_ My mind screams and my own hands rapidly reach for my own neck in a panic of the tightness throttling me once more. I swallow hard as the sensation floods back. _No! No! No!_

 _"_ I'll bite your hand off before you put that around me. Understand?"

Our eyes lock as lightning and flame dance.

"Get in the transport Mare. We're going home."


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3:_

 _Mare POV_

The burning pit of Archeon with its smoke, blood and gruesome death dissolves slowly into Summerton with its sunflowers, blossom and glass dome belonging to the Hall of Sun. My legs want to run, my lungs want to yell and my hands want to bang onto the bullet and probably scream proof glass of the transport I'm locked in. The gnawing of realization is a flood sweeping across my insides and drowning them in desperation. My new cage just smiles tauntingly with its marble and glass gaining in proximity with every second that passes. And ticking towards Cal's doom. My eyes flicker to the stone coliseum climbing to the heavens with leaves and royal dreams amalgamating itself into the very pillars of the ancient silver stadium that sweeps past my gaze as rapidly as I'd once destroyed Queenstrial. I swallow hard at my own slowness.

"You're going to put Cal into the arena again." I whisper against the glass that steams at the touch of my breath. It reminds me of a storm cloud through its greyness hanging there, until it disperses into nothingness. I can feel Maven's eyes as I break the long aching and hollow silence that we've been submerged in since I was dragged to sit alongside him with tears and cries that no one but him heard as I banged my fists against the window I still want to shatter into cracks.

"And Iris." He almost spits her name like one would cough up water from their lungs after drowning. With disgust. His tone lightens swiftly when the next unexpected words slip past his lips as softly as his skin brushes mine. He finds my hands and my face first, my eyes wide and lips slightly open with my heart thundering against my chest. I blink twice as electric sparks snake underneath my skin.

"W-Who did you just say?" I almost feel dizzy with my call for repetition quivering as much as lightning itself cracks. Maybe he feels the tremble in my hands as his previous name sinks into my brain. Maven's eyes study the way that I know my chest is rising and falling as fast as flashes can strike the earth. Maven doesn't allow his smoldering gaze to lose its focus on me, even as the doors of the transport on either side simultaneously open and a flood of oxygen rushes in and runs through my loose hair gently. Suddenly, the threat of outside this transport makes my toes curl.

"You Mare." My hands turn cold as he releases them but not my gaze, he won't lose that as he searches for a sigh or a sob. His eyebrows knit together when he finds tears. My lips tingle like electric and I blink away dots that don't exist. I'm in his cage again, awaiting the fall of death. Just like before. He breaks his eyes away as if the leather seats are better than my tears and heavy breathing. His hands roll into fists at the sound of my jagged pants as panic sets into my bones. His eyes snap back smoldering like flames.

"See, you don't want to die with Cal. Not in that arena, not at all. I know you too well, Mare. You want to survive, like me. We're no different bar blood. You are a fighter. Death scares you. You refuse to be nothing. You were born to be the first Red Queen of Norta."

Rage surges through my veins at the very thought of Jon and his damned foresight. _You will rise._ A slither slips through me as a thin smile falls across his lips as he leans forward to hold my gaze for what manages to feel like an eternity. "You'll go into that arena tomorrow and the 38th Queenstrial will begin. You'll kill Iris and I will choose you to be my Queen, Mare. It's all planned."

Water and electricity don't mix. Her death should be quite easy as battle tactics enter my mind as the feel for electric races around my blood, setting them humming. Her shields won't hold for long against my currents and she'll sizzle. The thought of her water makes me shiver, just like her name. I remember her blue eyes finding me and her fingers. A sort of twisted friendship that shall be buried along with her fried, dark corpse and blue silks. "Why would I do that?" I blink away the flashes of Iris' image with her sea blue ballgown being dyed into a purple and black heap of sparks and burn marks. Her body being surrounded by boiling pools of water. I swallow hard against the picture.

"Because if you don't, she'll kill you first." My eyes widen as shocks crawl across my skin at the simplicity of his words. A dual to the death. The air wind picks up, cold touching my flesh and cooling the boiling sparks that run through me. Maven's eyes are burning blue pools as he lets out a tiny laugh. "You didn't Queenstrial would be easy, did you?" He licks his lips, as if bored with me. "You shouldn't have a problem with killing Queens, Mare. You've done it before."

 _Elara._

My eyes shoot away from his to the back window of the transport, where the purple, blue and silver flags now make perfect sense. The colours of purple lightning girl Marenna and the blue of water weaver, Iris. A shiver shoots down my spine. House Samos' silver. _Evangeline_. A stab slashes across my gut at the realization, which leaves my face leaking of rosy flush, like the blood that will rush from my body from her spikes. Her metal will kill me. There's no way I'll be walking out of that cage alive. This time, I won't be stealing her spotlight.

"Well, have fun marrying Evangeline then." I scoff bitterly. His eyes seem to soften suddenly when the words escape past my lips.

"Please, you were always better than her in every way. Stronger, deadlier, prettier." Heat floods to my cheeks, mistakenly and I can feel the sickening burn on them as he winks. A flicker of the old Maven. It's a lie though but the seriousness in his eyes tells me that those words are his truth. A deranged truth.

"Once they're both dead- You'll earn the Silvers respect with Iris and Evangeline's treachery outweighing your own and you'll get the Reds attention as you choose your side after the Scarlet Guard used your face for their ambition. Both sides will love you, like I do." He's putting me in another war and dares to entwine flirting with fighting as if this is natural and almost romantic. His fingers reach for a strand of my brunette and violet hair but I shove it back roughly before he can reach. He shrugs carelessly. "You'll wear purple and silver to match your hair. I always liked you in purple."

He seems to watch my cheeks. The blush has died and he frowns, hanging on a hope that it might reappear. I don't give him time to make them as my black boots touch the stone steps of the summer palace and my hair is whipped and onyx leather jacket shaken by the gathering thunderclouds that I leave looming behind me and let flash, as Maven follows out of the transport and I am under the protection of chandeliers and cold halls hung over with glass.

"Your Highness. Lady Mare Barrow."

Hundreds of pairs of unexpected eyes make their way to me instantaneously, dragging over the blackness from my jacket, t-shirt to jeans and boots. The only colour being the bright purple. Frowns past their faces at its simplicity and statement, the colour of mourning illustrating my curves and calves. They expect red, searching hungrily for a single shred of the shade anywhere on my body, finding none. They scan for silver and find none. They shiver as lightning flashes visibly above us, beyond the dome of glass. I force a smile and step forward carefully as they lower their eyes, out of respect, fear, nervousness. I cannot be sure.

"Mare Barrow has returned to us after battling for our side at Archeon. Her presence is a welcome one as we have an admission to you all. You considered Barrow a traitor the last time she appeared in our Court. However, this was a plot to help the Scarlet Guard seek to take her back into their ranks so that she could provide false information on our way of life, on us. Mare is a true Silver, with the only exception being that of her blood. She has dedicated herself to our cause and shall be welcomed back with her participation in a to the death Queenstrial. Mare Barrow, Evangeline Samos and Iris of the Lakelands shall take part in these new games to earn their place on the throne at my side. We all know that Iris has betrayed our cause and so has Lady Evangeline but these two women consider themselves to possess a claim to the throne of Norta as Queen as a result of this political instability. This must be rectified and will give the people an excuse to have some light in this time of darkness. And if Princess Iris or Evangeline Samos win Queenstrial then they will be forced to speak a vow of loyalty- And as we all know, Silvers do not break promises."

His eyes linger on me a moment and another slice of lightning crashes above us. Waves of horror course through me as my eyes scan across the entrance hall of the Silvers. They're not ready for war, no armor, no tears. He's letting the Lakelanders and Scarlet Guard destroy themselves first as they both fight for empire. My knuckles scrunch together and become fists. My eyes glance over Maven and the Silvers. They'll be the last ones standing in this war as Archeon battles on. The Lightning Girl and King on the run, safe and guarded. Cal, Iris, and Evangeline dead. Both sides broken and forced to surrender to Maven. This is his strategy. And it's working. All the pieces are ready on his chessboard.

Tomorrow is _checkmate_.

I need to see Cal... _He's here, somewhere._

Maven led us down those tunnels to capture us and place us where he wanted on that damn chess board. And we all played.

His hand on mine almost makes me shiver as I'm dragged back to the depths of reality, his eyes finding mine as we are left to stand alone, save his sentinels in the center of the entrance hall and I almost instinctively search for exists that are closed off. "Mare, I just want you to know before tomorrow that- that you'll be okay."

I open my mouth to ask a snarky question but he turns his back on me slowly before a 'get some rest,' slips out of his lips.

* * *

Adrenaline surges through me as bath water runs across my skin softly, washing away the dirt and stink of sweat from battle. Their eyes follow the blue veins across my body, trying to see sparks merged within them. They see none. The maid's hands are gentle out of fear of the girl that could sizzle them in a second. I want to shiver at the feel of the droplets. They only remind me of what is to come, alongside the metallic blades that glide over brown hairs, leaving my creamy legs soft and Silver like. I shove away the oncoming thought of Evangeline and relax into the feel of my hair being smothered in rose perfumed foam. As if they're turning me back into a princess. Preparing me for a King. Leaving me to die royal like.

My legs stretch and my body is filled with warmth from the cream towel that I fold around myself until my skin is dry and my hair is furiously patted until it falls into brunette and purple waves. I swallow hard at the sight of the full-length ball gown before me smiling cruelly with its silver layers upon layers of crystals coating violet material that flows as if weightless. A shiver shoots down my spine. It's as if I've already won Queenstrial in that. The tiara of lightning bolts and merging flames wound into the, intentionally non metal but wooden painted silver crown is placed fiercely deep onto my skull, fixed firmly. _Subtle Maven, subtle._ The ballgown is tugged over my head and leaves me looking like sparkles have been thrown like confetti. The message is clear- Look at the Lightning Girl, watch her glitter and kill. My lips are painted lightly with a subtle pink tone and my cheeks are turned into a highlighted colour that draws to my slender cheekbones. My hair is purposefully pulled back into a high ponytail so that I can kill my opponents easier.

Kill. My throat turns dry at the thought. Killing Evangeline... My stomach knots at the thought. She's a bitch but not that much of one. I squeeze my lips together and feel the weight of lightning in my palms. Waiting to be summoned.

"Mare, are you ready?" Maven's voice makes the electricity within my veins hum louder until the pulse of my power bleeds in my ears. It wants to strike. I suck in a deep breath and turn to possibly face my end.

"Ready."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Hello! Thank you so much, everybody, for reading this and reviewing and following and favoriting! I loved writing this chapter and I'm hoping you'll like some of the shocks ;) Get it haha.

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 _Chapter 4:_

 _Mare POV_

The hunger for death in their drumming, purple flags fluttering, flickerings of rapid photographs and spine-tingling screams for the Little Lightning Girl. Trapped. Swallowed by the spiraling stadium. I swallow hard as the tremors of applause feel like lashings of thunder beneath my feet and the flashes of cameras lick at my lightning. Adrenaline shoots through my veins in the waves of the elites chanting. Mare. Mare. Mare.

Their eyes drink me in hungrily as I drown in a sea of silvers, wanting their world to be dyed red. My name vibrates, sizzling on their lips and I manage to catch my breath in the seconds of their brief silence- Until his presence melts all speech into ashes and leaves the court falling to their knees like cinders. I hear the left-sided rattling of Evangeline's metal as she curtsies sardonically and listen to the right-sided shoving of Iris' knees hitting the ground like the crashing of a wave on the shore. My eyes flicker upwards instead and find his horribly gorgeous smoldering gaze, a king's cage. Maven's cage. The intensity of them makes me want to choke as they never draw away but burn brighter as he leans closer from above, his hands resting nonchalantly on the edge of the royal box. Maven swallows hard at me staring back. I trace his chiseled pale cheekbones and jawline, the rising arched eyebrow and the curving of his lips into a smile that leave my insides burning.

"The end of the war will take place in this arena. Those who are traitors to Norta will not go unpunished today! Red and silver lives shall be taken from the highest houses to the lowest! There will be no mercy. But there will be a new Queen of Norta by sunset. I say let this war end and Queenstrial begin." His eyes never leave mine."You will kill them, Mare and you will sit at my side." A quiet whisper that hangs in the silent air like a broken kiss. A gentle behest that leaves tears stinging my eyes. I beg for them to disappear but instead, they dribble down my cheeks and fall to the sand like single droplets of blood.

"N-No I won't."

My veins surge with an onslaught of heat as the world holds its breath in my silence and stillness, at the lack of lightning. The tapping of Maven's index finger on the balcony burns my insides with every quiet yet deafening contact as tiny but expanding fires crawl across the wood of the royal box. And still he leans emersed in his own flames, dangerous but so achingly handsome. The sight almost makes me stumble on the pondering of my next words, wanting to bask in the brightness of the tangerine glow a little longer.

"Speak again, Mare. I'm afraid we all misheard you." His tenor cuts as sharp as a knife but with the deadly smoothness of its silver blade. The smell of the flames hits my nostrils as they rise and flicker to the beat of Maven's rapid pulse, just as the distant rolls of thunder cracks to my own. He hears my heart beat quickening in its rhythm and his fingers halt hastily, listening to every low rumble, letting them wash over him. Until I open my mouth.

"I won't kill Evangeline. O-Or Iris. I won't do it."

My words are gasoline. I am the match that lights the flames between us. I am the one that ignites the behest on his own index fingered covered lips, as if his twisted heart tries to silence himself, but his mouth does not obey. The command slips out as easily as smoke, lying thick and heavy in the air.

"Get her sister."

I want to choke on the darkness of the words that make my throat turn tight and breath ragged. _Not Gisa! Not Gisa! Not Gisa!_ I want to shove his words back into his mouth as I bite on my electrified tears.

"Take it back! I'm sorry! Take it back! Maven!" The chords of my voice crack like jets of lightning, merging with my tears to form a storm in my screams. He listens to the sounds leaving my mouth but says nothing, drinking in the sight as if a Storm Chaser.

"TAKE IT BACK!" My throat is ripped at the force of my scream that is lost in the sudden cries, one as sharp as scraping metal. A sickening sound that set my teeth on edge. The other screams of spaced out muffled whimpers as if drowning under the weight of water. But not water. Electric. The sea of purple hits my vision as I whirl to witness Iris thrashing against the tide of sparks. I stare down at my fingers and find the neon indigo ebbing away as I catch my breath. They're shaking as much as the Princess of the Lakelanders body. I swallow hard at the sight of her lying in a pool of electrified water, her every muscle twitching and lips mouthing my name.

No! My feet fly into motion with my knees burying themselves into the shore of her electrified sea. "I'm so sorry, I-I didn't mean too- I." Her dark fingers find mine slowly and she nods gracefully even now. My tears fall onto her sprayed out gown of aqua as my fingers move to her chest and the humming in her veins calls back to me, with sparks rising to form extra shimmer on my gown. Deadly purple glitter that I conduct.

I give her an apologetic smile as her palms drag the water to spheres that she clings too. My eyes take in the beauty of her craftsmanship as I lean closer to her rising body, transfixed on the way the balls of water sway softly, gently, singing. It calls me forth. "The waters so pretty." I breathe lightly, listening to Iris' melodic chimes.

"You think so, Barrow? Wanna taste?" Iris' words make my lips dry, my tongue heavy, my mouth needy. "I'll give you a drink, you poor little plug socket." Peculiar waves of relief shoot through my body as her palm presses against willing open mouth as her body crashes down upon me like a wave, pinning me down against the seabed.

"You traitorous little rat, I was on your side! I gave Maven to you to kill out of the decent of my heart. I was helping you and then I find out you were working with him all along, waiting to be his little Red Queen. Well I don't think so, rat."

I cry a no against her streams of water but it comes out as nothing but weak gargals.

"MARE!"

Her liquid does not quench Maven's far-off flames. I hear them flickering somewhere but the sound of his hollers are nothing compared to my own defeaning gasping and thrashing. He lied... Of course he lied. He wants me to die- His Red Queen. And I am dying. My lungs burn from water as I choke on air that refuses to come. My eyes ache for darkness, for the tsunami to wash over me. I give into the onslaught... The darkness seems to wash out the water.

My eyes snap open suddenly as I gasp and splutter.

The muffling cries reappear from Iris' lips, begging for oxygen against the glorious thick chains of Evangeline's metal clawing into the flesh of her neck. What a pretty sight. I fall on my side and cough up every droplet of water I can manage with my sparks jutting in my own palm. My eyes find Evangeline's and she smirks sharply.

"You're lucky that wave of lightning went to her, Little Lighting Girl. The stupid little sea-urchin needs to pay for Habour Bay. I'll kill you, princess for nearly drowning me and my brother. And you next, Barrow for betraying me like that, running off with the ultimate royal psychopath of the decade. Even I felt a little bad for Cal."

 _Oh shit._ Iris lets out a pathetic moan as Evangeline's grip tightens, waiting for a retort. My fingers find Iris' chest once more and I strike her system with shocks. "He has my family, tinfoil. I-I have no choice."

The words linger in the air as Iris' unconscious body falls to the ground.

Agony surges across my left cheek suddenly and my body is thrown to the sand with Evangeline's eyes locking onto mine with her hands seizing my throat skillfully. It's not loose either. A single tear slips down her cheek and falls onto my own. Her breathing is rapid on mine but I don't allow my sparks to slice her.

"YOUR FAMILY! M-Maven's men found me and my family, they killed my father and mother, Mare. IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT. Come up with any bullshit you want, if you hadn't come into this damn picture at all, they'd be alive. You and your Calore men. My father would tell me to kill you a-and I don't want to but you've left me no choice- I-I have nothing but royal marriage now." I feel the pulse of her heartbeat running through the cold metal as she shakingly presses it to my own throat now. And I take one final breath before the quivering comes against her tears. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Mare."

I choke on my weak warnings against the tightness of her chains cutting into my flesh and his name hangs on my lips as moans that Evangeline does not hear before Sentinels grip her arms and Maven's fingers dig into her shoulder blades to pull her off of me.

 _No! She is supposed to live!_ My mind screams against the Sentinels holding her fiercely as Maven buries his knees next to me, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear slowly _._ He leans down to whisper in my ear so that I can only hear the flaming words."You've won Queenstrial. I've made my decision. You're too addictive to let go. I can't let you go.'" He whispers softly against my skin. "I can set this world on fire and call it rain, remember Mare?"

I can feel the thrumming of his sound pack like thunder within my soul. His eyes lock onto mine and my body burns under the pure hot intensity of his gaze. I could melt into the heat on him, his fingers running from my hair to my stomach randomly. slowly, calculatingly. Politically.

The timing, the positionings, his plan. My breath catches in my throat at the genius of it all.

 _I could set this world on fire and call it rain..._

The camera's flash like lightning and the microphone within his military jacket flashes red for: On.

I watch his chest rise, preparing for his moment in the spotlight, the boy no longer in the shadows. He steps out- Beautiful, tender, graceful, kingly.

 _Gorgeous Monster._

"You never told me you were pregnant, Mare."


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N:_ Thank you, thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed and reviewed so far. Every single one makes me smile! I hope you enjoy the next chapter, I would love to know you all think. Also, it would mean a lot of you would check out my other Red Queen fanfiction entitled: The Room of Flames and Lightning (MavenxMare) Many thanks and well wishes! :)

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 _Chapter 5:_

 _Mare POV_

"You never told me you were pregnant, Mare."

Red. Red. Red. Until silver suddenly: Off. I drown in the silence of eternity between us.

His lie burns every atom within me, leaving teardrops over marks and I drown in the down pouring of applause that hits unmercifully like rain, except the sound will not wash away the words or the feel of his achingly warm hands or the weight of his smoldering sapphire eyes studying me beneath dark eyelashes, waiting. My fingers itch with sparks, so close I can almost feel the pulsing heat of Maven's skin that my palms long to touch and sizzle. My lungs are heavy against the shockwaves still rolling over me like thunderclouds, against the steady thrumming in my mind, slithering like a snake over formulating responses. _I hate you. I'll kill you..._ My fingers move slowly, brushing over his own. _I'll kill you..._ So close, so close to making him an electrical rod over a king.

 _Stupid Little Lightning Girl... My son's saving you and you in this airy head of yours still can't work that out, can you? Oh Mare Barrow, how you haven't changed since you thought you killed me ha. You sweet silly piece of nothing, I still have you eating out my palm. You will marry my son and you will be queen just like we discussed before hmm. You will do as I command and I'll have my revenge on you, Mare Barrow- I'm making you my daughter in law and you will be the future mother of my grandchildren, you red rat._

Terror rips through my body and I struggle on oxygen as my skull is struck by volts and volts of electricity, burning the sparks in my palm to nothingness and sizzling off all self-control. Agony engulfs my trembling frame, the frame of my own body that is somehow and for some reason in Elara's mind rising to meet his. "E-Elara." That is all I manage to spit out and splutter before she leads my body upwards further for the flashing camera's, pressing my own lips against his. Their warmth melts the shoots of pain, drowning out the too familiar bitter tones of her voice with the storm of screams, washing Elara away from the depths of my mind. Coldness streams through my veins as Maven's cold fingers skirt my chin, holding my gaze to his, as his lips leave mine slowly, too slowly.

He gently wipes away my tears with his fingers, as if they can be melted away. "This is the only way you can survive, Mare. My mother wanted you dead in revenge for your little stunt of nearly killing her, never quite managing it but I won't do it, I won't let you die. N-Not like Thomas. I've lost you too many times and can't let you slip away again. This- this is only lie I can make to keep us together and keep you alive. Now the world knows. I'm saving you, Mare. From my mother. From your own mistakes. From the Scarlet Guard plans to kill you after this was all through. You don't see it yet but you will."

Instincitively my mind wants his soft and gentle and dark and tainted words to be pushed into non existence. My thunder rumbles within me growling hungrily for my own sparks to sizzle away the lie that exists on everyone's lips. It's still spreading around the arena, catching like flames. I am trapped in an inferno, a wildfire, with the heat of the lie leaving a gleaming of sweat of over my brow with vomit rising in my throat. The cost of survival against Evangeline Samos, the cost of Maven Calore's obsession.

My legs ache to stand and my arms long for freedom against the entrapment of his. I find my feet. He is poison and my lungs don't want to breathe him in any longer. He is a beautiful poision though with that dark handsomeness and those pretty words another Mare Barrow would have fallen for. But I am not that Mare Barrow and I will not be the Marenna Titanos that his sapphire flamed orbs beg for. He sees the storm in my eyes and the purposeful sharpness of them strikes him like lightning and my words crack like thunder. "I will never be yours. You can wield a thousand lies but I will never love you like I do Cal."

The softness of his expression with those dark doe eyes are lost to a mask as hard as iron forged from the flames of his own making. Maven climbs to his feet like a rising bud of fire, growing in height until he towers over me again. His eyes brush over me calculatively and coldly until the lightning in my veins hiss.

The thrumming of electricity hums in my ears, gaining in volume rapidly at the flick of his sudden and sickening flick of his flame charged fingers. The weight of his sound pack flickering to red for on leaves my limbs tingling at the sweet sensation, as if my body longs for the words but knowing that my heart will inevitably break at the reality of them.

Maven Calore's words is the ice that causes a thunder storm when the behest slips past his lips as easily as sucking in air."Mare Barrow, soon to be Calore will be the one to execute Tiberius Calore of Norta, the exiled prince. Here and now before you all."

That is a glass sword. Maven lodges it full force into my ribs and watches the colour melt from my cheeks. He studies my face over the roar of the crowd- I am more entertaining. The gasp that esapes raw from my throat at the sensation of being struck so deeply.

"You almost look Silver, Mare. Good, my brother will show you no mercy. He will never choose you, like I will. You kill him before he kills you. Who can blame him? Betraying him like that, for carrying his brother's baby, siding with his brother all along, seducing him with no emotion. So cruel, little lightning girl."

His lips touch my ear, a sign of affection to everyone but me. "I expect you to electocute him. You should hide your heart. There's nothing left for you in his."

 _Very true, little lightning girl._

 _I wish I really had managed to kill you completely._

The familiar hissing of flames drowns Elara's cruel whispers out of my mind and the shoots of pain as she crawls is melted against the licking of live fire dancing at my back. I whirl as rapidly as a bolt of lightning to find two balls of flickering tangerine twitching in both of his palms. The sight leaves sparks flowering over my skin, tiny surges of electricity creeping down my spine at the burning in those beautiful bronze eyes. I want to drown in the orbs of melted gold. _The hue of the crown he wanted over you_ , Elara hisses. They narrow when they drink me in from my toes, to the tyrian purple of my silver glittering ballgown to my tummy to tiara.

"Cal... Cal, listen to me."

My words are answered in flames. Cal covers me in tiny burning pellets of embers, showering me in orange, setting my tiara alight with real fire of the Calores. Burning pieces of glitter that sizzles my shoulders. I am the electrical spark that causes the orange glow still juttting in his palms, the faulty charge leaving him to catch light.

"No, you listen to me for once." The 'for once' is painful enough without the hurling of a fire ball that my body dodges and is met with a growl of lightning, shaking where he stands. "I will kill you Mare. I-I don't want too, believe me but how can I not? Y-You lied to me all this time. Y-You were with Elara and Maven. You're having his baby? When were you going tell me, Mare? Y-You never loved me, did you?" His voice quivers like a flame dancing in the wind.

My heavy hands call for the silver and purple sparkles on my gown that tear away at my mental command and form bolts in my own palms, glittering and glinting. I release the electric bullets like catapults that collide midair with Cal's own bright flames and they scream in a fury of purple, silver, orange and black.

My eyes follow the amalgamation of lightning and ash, at the fury between them burning and sizzling. He wants me to be reduced to cinders. And my common sense is screaming to reduce him to fried mess- But I can't. Despite the approaching wave of deadly fire aiming straight towards me.

My lightning swift ability leaves my feet shooting towards Cal, as if he were the earth in a storm, landing my foot forcefully at his groin. It sends shockwaves through his body, leaving his knees firmly in the sand and flames to ashes. I don't need electricity.

"It's always been you, Cal. I know you'll never choose me over the crown, I know that and I'm not asking you too. I'm asking you to remember. I-I never betrayed you, I never will as long as I live."

Tears slip down his cheeks and land on the sand beneath our feet. My fingers want to sizzle them off but I keep my distance instead. "Her voice. Her voice. Make it stop Mare! Make Elara stop!"

 _Make me stop, little lightning girl. Your life for his._

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